Chapter 3 Planning

Being able to decide where to go paddling and being able to plan a safe day on the water are the most important things that we’ll cover on the course. We’ll cover the basic theory and spend time applying it to hypothetical situations before using our planning skills on trips.

Please do get involved with trip planning as much as you can. Get hold of guidebooks and maps for the locations that we’re heading to (I’ll have a few copies to share). Spend some time on the Friday night car journey getting weather forecasts on your phone, coming up with ideas and discussing them with the people you’re travelling with. We’ll start each day with a group discussion of our plans. The more you’ve thought about this ahead of time, the more you’ll get from these discussions - which are probably going to be the most valuable learning opportunities on the course.